Athīr al-Dīn al-Abharī

Athīr al-Dīn al-Mufaḍḍal ibn ʿUmar ibn al-Mufaḍḍal al-Samarqandī al-Abharī (Persian): اثیرالدین مُفَضَّل بن عمر بن مَفَضَّل سمرقندی ابهری; d. 1262 or 1265 also known as Athīr al-Dīn al-Munajjim (اثیرالدین منجم) was an Iranian Muslim polymath, philosopher, astronomer, astrologer and mathematician. Other than his influential writings, he had many disciples.

Life His birthplace is contested among sources. According to the Encyclopaedia of Islam and the Encyclopaedia Islamica, he was born in Abhar, a small town between Qazvin and Zanjan in the North-West of Iran. The claim of G.C. Anawati making him a native of Mosul in Iraq, taken from the fact that al-Abharī was educated by a scientist from Mosul, Kamāl al-Dīn ibn Yūnus al-Mawṣilī, must also been dismissed.

According to most accounts, al-Abharī died in Mosul between 660/1261–62 and 663/1264–65, during the reign of Khān Hülegü.

Works Astronomy Risāla fī al-hayʾa (رساله الهیئة; lit. Treatise on astronomy). Mukhtaṣar fī al-hayʾa (مختصر فی علم الهیئة; lit. Epitome on astronomy). Kashf al-ḥaqāʾiq fī taḥrīr al-daqāʾiq (كشف الحقائق فی تحریر الدقائق), where he accepts the view that the celestial bodies do not change and maintains that stars have volition and it is the source of their motion.

Mathematics Several works on Iṣlāḥ (اصلاح; lit. Correction) of Euclid, one of which is an attempt to prove the parallel postulate, which was commented upon and criticized by Shams al-Dīn al-Samarqandī.

Philosophy (هدایةالحکمه; lit. Guide on Philosophy): a book dealing with the complete cycle of Hikmat, i.e., logic, natural philosophy, and metaphysics. (ایساغوجی فی المنطق; Commentary on Porphyry's Isagoge), a treatise on logic. Latin Translation by Thomas Obicini; Īsāghūkhī, Isagoge. Id est, breve Introductorium Arabicum in Scientiam Logices: cum versione latina: ac theses Sanctae Fidei. R. P. F. Thomae Novariensis (1625).